On the surface, your call center is functioning just how it should. Your agents are regularly making calls, your employees are engaged with each other and they seem to be invested in the company. While it may appear that everything is going well, the only way to really judge your success with outbound sales is with metrics.
Metrics are the cold, hard pieces of information that tell you exactly where your strengths and weaknesses lie. Call center metrics help you evaluate the value of leads, the strength of the call script, how every agent is performing, and the speed of the technology your agents are using. All of this is valuable information when it comes to making your outbound customer service calls more successful.
Call Attempts and Contacts
If you want to know if your team is on track, the first place to start is with the rate of calls going out per agent, per campaign and per team. This is called attempts. Once you have your data and numbers in place, you have a comparison point for future campaigns.
Now look at contacts from attempts. Looking at the call contacts can help you determine which teams/agents are struggling and which are being successful. Once you’ve pinpointed which are functioning correctly, look to them to figure out how to make your other teams successful. Is it the intro they are using? Is it the technology or agent behavior like dispositioning? Is it a combination of several different things? Once you have a grasp on the data, you can implement new practices that will increase your sucess.
Conversion
You can make a thousand calls, but unless they turn into actual sales, your campaign will go nowhere. It’s vital that you are measuring outcomes for each lead:
- Not a real number or invalid
- Don’t call again or not interested
- Interested, but needs more time
- Not the right person to call or unqualified
- Successful lead converted to sale
When you can compartmentalize every connection you make, you can determine if you need to improve your scripting, dialing window, offers, etc.
Call Time
Your agents should be spending their call time asking the correct questions, fleshing out the main points and coming up with the right solutions. While a script is important to your campaign, you must also be able to let the conversation naturally flow.
Keep your agents on point and on message even as they build a relationship with the customer. The amount of time actually spent on a call can directly affect your leads that turn into real sales. Power dialing, CRMs, automation and screen pop ups help save time, but your agent needs to know how to manage their time on the phone.
Metrics Forecasting
Used correctly, metrics can help you forecast how your campaign will go, and give you an idea of which trends work and which don’t. Using metrics allows you to determine if you are using the right dialing systems, sales techniques, lists and call scripts. You can also set goals that are more realistic for future campaigns or jobs. Metrics can also be used to help you forecast which times of the day are busy and which are less successful.
The Template Application
Over time, as you pay attention to call center metrics, you can build a template that works for your call center. Adapt this template to each campaign, and your chances of success increase greatly.
